MUA Frozen Yoghurt and NYX Carnival

Tomorrow morning I am headed off for five days in the Lake District. I am not bringing any polishes with me, so I wanted to wear something that would last the five days - hopefully anyway! So, I decided to do a glitter gradient on the tips to hopefully ward off chipping. I layered NYX's Carnival over MUA's Frozen Yoghurt. I showed Carnival once before here. Frozen Yoghurt reminds me of Sinful Colors' Verbena, which I wore here.

The first photograph is a bit blue-leaning, but the last two are pretty color accurate. 

I'm off to finish this episode of Roseanne and head to bed. Later, gators!

China Glaze For Audrey half moons with stars

I showed you guys China Glaze's For Audrey nearly two years ago now, but here it is as a half moon mani with some star gems on an accent nail. The gems were sent to me by Nicole in a swap a while back.

I'm pretty "meh" about this manicure. It was much cuter in my head! I think the stars would work better if they were a bit smaller. And I'm pretty sure they'll be falling off very soon. Even after two coats of top coat they stick out. Also For Audrey seems to apply... sloppily? Does anyone else have this issue? Despite clean up efforts there is still excess polish, and I was being careful as I applied it. Who knows? Maybe I'm just out of practice. I raved about the application process my first post about For Audrey, but it looks sloppy in that post, too. Urgh.

Happy Wednesday!

I'm back (?!?!) with some blue and yellow hearts

It has been nearly a year since my last post that actually included a proper manicure in it. This is what I have been up to since then:

Around the time of my last proper post, I found out I had been accepted into graduate school in London. I spent a lot of time stressing out about getting a passport, getting a visa, applying for student loans, figuring out housing in London, moving out of my apartment and into my parents' house, and then finally moving across the Atlantic. Phew!

Then it was all about finding my way in London, getting accustomed to being a student again, making new friends - all the things that come with packing up and moving across the globe. It has been amazing.

So why am I back? Well, to be honest this kind of started a few days ago when I discovered like the rest of the interwebz that Google Reader would soon be no more. I took this as an opportunity to sift through all of my subscriptions rather than move everything over to a new reader. In doing so, I starting going through nail blogs again and realizing just how much I miss doing my nails.

That being said, I am not sure how often I will be able to update. One, being in graduate school means I am frequently stressed, lacking sleep, and generally busy with school-related things, and thus nail polish falls low on my list of priorities. Second, due to my chosen field (conservation of works of art on paper), I am not able to wear nail polish during the school/work week. I hate to admit how much of an adjustment this has been for me. As much as I love what I am doing, I truly miss having painted nails on a regular basis. Third, because I am on a very limited budget, and will be moving back to America at some point, I am limiting my polish purchases. Despite all of that, I am hoping that I can see polishing my nails as a release after the school week, and hope to update at least semi-regularly.

Now, enough rambling. Here's what is currently on my nails:

Blue background with yellow hearts! Plus a stripey accent nail.

I managed to get my thumb to be semi-grid like.

They look pretty cute against my pineapple shirt.

I've acquired an iPhone since my last post and I am obsessed with Instagram like everyone else.

The colors I used: Miss Sporty 456 (Blue Bath, I believe) and Barry M Lemon Ice Cream.

So, there we go. My first post back. For those of you with a job that doesn't allow you to wear nail polish, how do you manage!?